1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to a system and method for coupling communication terminals in a mobile communication system. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method, which can provide a high-speed/high-capacity data service to the user of a terminal end device such as a notebook computer in a wireless communication environment by connecting a plurality of communication terminals, which can be independently connected to a base station by mobile communication, to a single terminal coupler.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional 3rd-Generation (3G) or 4G communication systems are intended to provide high-speed data services through wireless channels which are limited resources by using various types of excellent technologies such as Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) and Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO). Further, conventional 3G or 4G communication systems are intended to provide high-speed data services by allowing a single terminal to be simultaneously connected to a plurality of carriers.
Korean Patent Publication No. 2009-0071299 discloses a technology entitled “Apparatus and method for transmitting/receiving information about changes in groups of mobile terminals in a communication system”. This patent describes a scheme for transmitting/receiving information about changes in groups of mobile terminals in a communication system, wherein mobile terminals are divided into at least two groups, and individual groups communicate with each other using different frequency bands.
Further, Korean Patent Publication No. 2009-0080742 discloses a technology entitled “Communication terminal device and method of performing communication using a plurality of network interfaces installed in the communication terminal device”. This patent describes a scheme which respectively allocates different Internet Protocol (IP) addresses corresponding to a plurality of network interfaces to a plurality of applications of the communication terminal device, relays data that is transmitted or received between the plurality of applications and the plurality of network interfaces on the basis of the allocated IP addresses, and allows the network interfaces to simultaneously communicate with an external network via the relay, thus improving the transfer efficiency of data.
However, even if the above technologies are used, the maximum transfer rate that can be supported by one terminal is more limited in a wireless communication environment compared to a wired communication environment, and may also vary according to the status of a wireless channel.
That is, under the current Internet use environment and the current wireless communication environment in which the amount of multimedia data is rapidly increasing, there are many difficulties when a user is provided with a high-speed/high-capacity data service using only a single terminal.